The Western New York Flash of the Women’s Premiere Soccer League Elite (WPSL) were defeated by the NY Fury, 1-0,  in their second game of the season on May 19 at Sahlen's Stadium.

The game opened up with the Fury coming out strong against the Flash forcing keeper Brittany Cameron to make a diving save in the first five minutes. The Flash slowly gained a rhythm and maintained possession for a majority of the first half trying to penetrate the experienced back four of the Fury. All four defenders for he Fury played in the Championship match against the Flash last season in the WPS. The Flash out-shot the Fury 11 to 6, and like last week’s win over FC Indiana, possession was 60/40 in favor of Western New York. 

The Fury’s Brittany Taylor scored the only goal of the night in the 54^th minute off an questionable corner kick awarded to the Fury on the right hand side. Merritt Mathias sent a driven low ball into the box which was dummied by Christina DiMartino, another former member of the Independence 2011 squad. Cameron got a hand on the shot, but the ball bounced and trickled in over the head of midfielder Angela Salem who was guarding the post. The Flash had several chances to convert but was unable to put one past Michelle Betos, NY Fury’s keeper. Betos made several key saves including denying captain McCall Zerboni's left footed strike late in the second half, and Nikki Marshall's blast during stoppage time inside the six yard box. Betos had a total of 11 saves throughout the night, shutting out the Flash.

“I felt we, in patches, played them off the park,” Lines added positively. “I thought we did a better job of getting people into the box this week, but you have nights like this every now and again. It’s very encouraging the way we played though, we just have to work on being a little bit more clinical—that’s an experienced back-line we played against there. They’re not going to give away too many chances, but we got our chances.”

We kept possession and dictated the pace of the game,” defender Alex Sahlen said. “Especially the second half, the entire game was played in their end. We just couldn’t capitalize on our opportunities—that second of composure, that final ball—whether it’s the pass or finish, we just couldn’t put it away today.”

The next game for the WNY Flash takes place against the Boston Breakers in Boston, Ma on May 26, at 6 p.m. All WNY Flash home games this season will be broadcast online at livesportsvideo.com.